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Csonka’s G1 Climax 27 (Night 3) Review 7.21.17

July 21, 2017 | Posted by Larry Csonka
7.9
The 411 Rating
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Csonka’s G1 Climax 27 (Night 3) Review 7.21.17  

Csonka’s G1 Climax (Night 3) Review 7.21.17

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– EVIL & Hiromu Takahashi defeated Juice Robinson & David Finlay @ 7:13 via submission
– Minoru Suzuki & Taichi defeated SANADA & BUSHI @ 8:13 via pin
– Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi defeated Tama Tonga & Chase Owens @ 7:45 via pin
– Michael Elgin, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano & Gedo @ 8:12 via submission
Block A Match: Hirooki Goto defeated Yuji Nagata @ 15:02 via pin [****¼]
Block A Match: Tomohiro Ishii defeated Togi Makabe @ 15:50 via pin [***½]
Block A Match: Kota Ibushi defeated Zack Sabre Jr @ 15:52 via pin [****]
Block A Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Bad Luck Fale @ 11:05 via countout [***]
Block A Match: Tetsuya Naito defeated YOSHI-HASHI @ 22:19 via pin [***½]


* NOTE: Like in past G1s and the BOTSJ, I will be focusing on the tournament matches only. Due to that, the final score for the show is only based on those matches.

* Apologies for the delay today, my little one was up sick all night, and dad duty came first.

Yuji Nagata vs. Hirooki Goto: As you would expect, the Korakuen crowd is heavily behind Nagata as he’s working his last G1, and they love them some Blue Justice. They aren’t against Goto by any means, but his supporters are the vocal minority. Nagata smartly tried to negate Goto’s power advantage by grounding him, working some kicks and fishing for the arm bar early. Goto finally cuts off Nagata, taking him to the floor and repeatedly shooting Nagata to the barricades. Back in and Goto takes control, working the half crab and breaking down Nagata with strikes. This pissed off Nagata, who started to fire up with knee strikes and vicious kicks. DO NOT FUCK WITH BLUE JUSTICE! They light each other up with strikes and slaps, Nagata goes back to the kicks and rocks Goto. Outstanding intensity here as Nagata hits the XPLODER for 2. Goto fires back, hitting the spin kick and Saito suplex, covering for 2. Nagata counters the ushigoroshi, but Goto goes back to it, hits it and gets a good near fall. Nagata counters the GTR, but Goto beats him down to the mat. Nagata pulls the desperation arm bar and the eyes roll back as he tries to rip off Goto’s arm. Great fight by Goto as he just makes the ropes. Nagata goes back to the kicks to the arm, hits the corner knee strike and then the draping neck breaker. The brainbuster follows, but Goto kicks out! Goto fights off the suplex, but Nagata hits an enziguri, hits the backdrop driver for an AWESOME near fall! Goto fights off the backdrop driver, lays in elbows and connects with the bulldog. They trade forearm strikes, just firing away and Nagata no sells the lariat and fires up. He no sells another and they keep trading! Goto finally drops Nagata with a lariat, but Nagata hits a spin kick, but Goto locks in the sleeper but Nagata fights out but drops to his knees after a Goto head butt; the GTR finishes Nagata. Hirooki Goto defeated Yuji Nagata @ 15:02 via pin [****¼] And this is why Nagata is getting one last run in the G1. This was an outstanding performance, one that smartly built throughout the match and never overstayed its welcome. Nagata was so great here, they had an awesome crowd that added a ton to the match and at the end of the day, Goto was able to overcome and put the legend away after a great, hard fought match. Nagata putting on performances like this, even in loss, adds an extra special feeling to the G1; yes it’s a great match, but the atmosphere is just amazing.

Togi Makabe vs. Tomohiro Ishii: We get the expected two bulls colliding and trading big strikes spot to begin; they are 1-1 in G1 competition, and have had wars in the past outside of the G1. We get some floor brawling, with both men taking turns slamming each other to the barricades. Back in and Ishii lays in chops, they trade strikes and Ishii mixes in some head butts and more chops. Makabe cuts off Ishii with a powerslam and then mounted punches in the corner. Makabe keeps control, hitting a northern lights suplex for a near fall. Makabe lays in a big series of strikes, which only pisses off Ishii, and he shrugs them off and hits a German suplex. Ishii follows with a great looking superplex, covering for a good near fall. Ishii hits another German, Makabe pops up and tries to fire up and they trade once again. Makabe has a lariat blocked, but hits one with the left and takes Ishii down. Makabe follows with a big powerbomb for 2. Makabe hits another lariat, but Ishii is pissed, but walks into another. Makabe fires up and hits two more lariats, one to the back of the head and one to the front for the near fall. Makabe sets Ishii up top and looks for the spider suplex, but Ishii fights that off and head butts Makabe into the tree of WHOA, but Makabe pops back up and suplexes Ishii to the mat. The king kong knee drop misses as Ishii rolls away, not today Makabe! They then try to kill each other, colliding center ring as both throw lariats. My word these are big lads doing big lad things; Ishii finally takes Makabe down with a lariat, but Makabe kicks out at 1. Ishii hits the sliding lariat, but Makabe fights off the brainbuster, goes crazy fists and hits a bridging German for 2. Ishii fires up with head butts and clotheslines, and hits the big lariat for a good near fall. BRAINBUSTER by Ishii, and Makabe is finally done. Tomohiro Ishii defeated Togi Makabe @ 15:50 via pin [***½] This was an overall very good match, in many ways they played the hits, just doing what they do best, which is hitting hard and trying to kill each other, and it works. The ONE good thing about Honma’s unfortunate injury is that Makabe has worked a lighter schedule, and is fresher than usual heading into the G1. he worked hard here and I have no complaints. This was a ton of fun.

Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr: Ibushi looks to use his speed and strikes to keep away from Sabre and to avoid the ground. That failed as Sabre immediately fought through the attack, took him down and worked the knee bar. That’s really smart, due to Ibushi liking to keep a fast pace and fly. He then transitions to working on the neck, which Naito tortured on their match. Ibushi also had a legit history of neck issues that the fans know about, which causes them to be instantly sympathetic. Once again, Sabre is being a great little asshole here, breaking away more and more from the lets kill time with my pretty grappling “grapple-boy” persona. Ibushi finally cut off Sabre, hitting a big body kick and following with strikes. Just as Ibushi looked to take control, Sabre cut him off and locked in the triangle choke. Ibushi made the ropes, but Sabre lit him up with uppercuts. Ibushi hit a desperation German, but Sabre went back to the arm to cut off his attack, and got the European clutch for a near fall. Sabre quickly locked in the octopus, but Ibushi escaped and hit a double stomp. Ibushi laid in kicks, but Sabre stopped that with a PK. They trade strikes, but Sabre catches the PELE and applies an ankle lock and then transitions into an STF. The crowd popped big for that spot; Ibushi escaped, but Sabre plants him with a German, bridging and getting 2. Ibushi blocks the next PK attempt, and then destroys Sabre with a lariat and a wild looking knee strike for the double down. Ibushi looks to go last ride, but Sabre counters into a triangle but Ibushi HERCS him up and hits the powerbomb for the win. Kota Ibushi defeated Zack Sabre Jr @ 15:52 via pin [****] This was a great match, one I was really looking forward too and they did not disappoint. Ibushi picks up the big win, but Sabre dominated throughout so even though he lost the match, he didn’t lose anything coming off of the Tanahashi victory. Sabre looked awesome, and Ibushi had to dig deep and counter out of Sabre’s game to pick up the win.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bad Luck Fale: Okada, Nakamura and Tanahashi have been the three that have really figured out how to get the best out of Fale; you have to let him be the monster, you have to work your speed advantage, you have to sell your ass off and then when the time is right, you play the hits and make the big crowd pleasing comeback. Those are the basics of getting something of quality out of Fale. Tanahashi used his speed early, looking for several quick pin attempts and had the monster rocked. But Fale would cut him off, attacking the am and beating down Tanahashi on the floor. Back in and Fale was just grinding Tanahashi down, but Tanahashi kept fighting back and even hit a German on the big man. But Tanahashi made the mistake of trying to slam Fale, and collapsed under the weight. Fale finally hit the big splash, but Tanahashi again survived. Tanahashi countered the grenade, hitting a neck breaker and Fale tried to toss Tanahashi to the floor, but Tanahashi went to skin the cat back in and got back in but Fale speared him and then looked for the bad luck fall, but Tanahashi countered out. Fale went to the floor. Tanahashi would fight back, hitting the high fly flow to the floor. A sling blade followed and Tanahashi beat the count to escape with the countout victory. Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Bad Luck Fale @ 11:05 via countout [***] I actually really like the countout finish here, Gedo teases so many countout finishes, and now that one happened in the G1, they will be more believable on the regular shows. You also protect Fale as the Injured Tanahashi essentially escaped with a win but didn’t beat Fale. Also, Fale didn’t get his usual beat Okada or Tanahashi token win, which I appreciate. This was good and exactly what it needed to be.

YOSHI-HASHI vs. Tetsuya Naito: Naito is in suit mode tonight since he’s main venting. They worked a fast, back and forth beginning stretch. HASHI took control early, but Naito hit the draping neck breaker to cut him off; Naito then took him to the floor and continued his attack. Back in and Naito worked the heat, and the crowd loved him. Naito stayed focused on the neck, slowly breaking down HASHI for destino. HASHI finally picked up the pace, hitting a running blockbuster and started to fire up, draping Naito in the ropes and hitting the dropkick for 2. Naito quickly went from tranquilo, picking up the pace and putting together combinations of moves but HASHI countered the tornado DDT, taking Naito down and following with a double stomp. HASHI then hit the shoulder breaker, and then hit the powerbomb, quickly covering for 2. Naito again puts together a series of attacks, hitting a German to finally slow HASHI down. HASHI then fought off Gloria, and followed with the enziguri. The neck breaker followed, and then Naito cut him off as he went up top. Naito follows him up, hits the super RANA and then hits Gloria for the near fall. HASHI fights off destino into a face first side slam, they trade strikes and slaps; HASHI follows with big kicks and then catches Naito out of the air with a code breaker and transitions into the butterfly lock. Naito fought, almost faded out but managed to escape and HASHI locked in a sleeper and hit the back stabber and swanton for a good near fall. HASHI back to the butterfly lock, fights to keep Naito center ring. Naito keeps fighting, although the spot felt a bit too long. Naito almost fades away but just barely makes the ropes. HASHI hits the knee strike to the back, but Naito fights out of karma and hits the rolling kick, but HASHI rebounds with a lariat for a good near fall. Naito then hits a desperation destino out of nowhere, but HASHI KICKS OUT! Naito dials it up again, hitting a second destino, and HASHI is finally done. Tetsuya Naito defeated YOSHI-HASHI @ 22:19 via pin [***½] This ended up being a very good match, with HASHI working with good confidence and while not an amazing match, he did his part in a very good main event. I appreciated the fact of how even it was worked and the fact that Naito was able to create such an atmosphere that made the Korakuen faithful, who love him, buy into HASHI ; that was really the key here. HASHI used all of his signature stuff here, giving Naito all he could handle, but just didn’t have a big enough arsenal to overcome the LIJ leader. With HASHI picking up a win on night one, they gave him a ton here so that he didn’t lose anything in tonight’s loss. I would usually hate HASHI kicking out of destino but the match and crowd all worked well into that closing stretch, and as long as it doesn’t become a regular thing (they do a great job of saving that for the big shows) it works here in these circumstances.

– Naito and LIJ stand tall to close the show.

BLOCK A STANDINGS
Tetsuya Naito: 2-0 (4pts.)
Hirooki Goto: 2-0 (4pts.)
YOSHI-HASHI: 1-1 (2pts.)
Tomohiro Ishii: 1-1 (2pts.)
Kota Ibushi: 1-1 (2pts.)
Zack Sabre Jr: 1-1 (2pts.)
Hiroshi Tanahashi: 1-1 (2pts.)
Bad Luck Fale: 1-1 (2pts.)
Yuji Nagata: 0-2 (0pts.)
Togi Makabe: 0-2 (0pts.)

BLOCK B STANDINGS
Juice Robinson: 1-0 (2pts.)
Tama Tonga: 1-0 (2pts.)
SANADA: 1-0 (2pts.)
Kazuchika Okada: 1-0 (2pts.)
Kenny Omega: 1-0 (2pts.)
Minoru Suzuki: 0-1 (0pts.)
Satoshi Kojima: 0-1 (0pts.)
Michael Elgin: 0-1 (0pts.)
EVIL: 0-1 (0pts.)
Toru Yano: 0-1 (0pts.)

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

 photo fe36ffd0-0da4-4e3b-a2d3-b026b341dd87_zps41ef5d61.jpg
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

7.9
The final score: review Good
The 411
This was a really strong show today, with all of the G1 matches delivering in different ways and making for a diverse and interesting show. The Korakuen crowd was great and added a lot to the show.
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